things to be thankful for

This is the fourth Thanksgiving I've blogged about here on NLD...and I have to say, it's probably been the best.

In the morning, I cooked (We three ladies had devised and split the menu, so no one person was responsible for all the cooking.), and then sat down to watch the Macy's parade...after about an hour and a half the CW Fife & Drum Corps appeared...and promptly disappeared again. All told, they spent about fifteen seconds onscreen. Hugely disappointing, especially since the commentators kept talking about how much other bands had practised to be there or how far they had come--well, the kids in the corps had been practising hard as well, not to mention they spent twelve hours on a bus. I learned from one of the color guards that the fife & drum actually march more slowly than modern marching bands, so they'd been rehearsing keeping up with a modern parade. I was disappointed they didn't get more air time, but they looked fantastic, and I'm sure that they made an impression on the three million people along the parade route. I can only imagine how loud they were in those steel and glass canyons.

Then I went over to Nicole's house...she's bought a beautiful new townhouse nearby, and had graciously agreed to host. We were joined by her boyfriend, Evan, Erin and her husband Mike, and another "orphan," Ben, a Navy guy. After we got the turkey in the oven (after the traditional telephone-call-home-to-anxiously-confer-with-Mom), Erin, Ben and I headed over to the historical area to hand out cookies. I had about five dozen that survived the carnage in the end. But I didn't realise that of course the interpreters would fill their breakrooms with treats. Most of them were too full for cookies...but the guests were surprised and thrilled and delighted to accept when we thrust baskets full of cookies at them.

It took us a lot longer to get through the historical area--there were a lot of people there--so when we got home, we were practically ready to eat. Except the turkey wasn't done. Dang. So we had to put dinner on hold for another hour while it finished roasting. Then when we too it out of the oven we discovered it had been cooked upside down. Oops. It was still delicious though--and jucier than any turkey I'd ever had. Even with three Navy guys we still had piles of food left over. I'm still full, three days later--but that could be due to the fact that I've been living off of leftovers.The whole day was just relaxed and fun with all the focus on food and spending time with people--just as it should be.